'We built our own co-housing community'

From the street, it's very easy to walk straight past New Ground.

But once inside, the space in High Barnet has clearly been carefully designed for, and by, its residents - all of whom are women aged over 50.

New Ground is a co-housing community where each resident has their own self-contained home and access to shared spaces and facilities.

I met some of the residents who told me how it's changed their lives for the better.

In a large communal kitchen and lounge, which looks out on a huge shared garden and vegetable patch, Vivien Sheehan, 79, tells me she loves gardening.

When she lived alone the high fences which surrounded her garden meant that some days she did not see anyone outside all day.

Here, there’s always someone to have a chat with.

"It’s just nice to have other people around when you want them," she said.

The complex is made up of 25 flats each with its own outside space.

The vision for the New Ground began many years ago when a group of women thought "how do we want to live when we are older?" explains 72-year-old Jude Tisdall.

She said they decided to explore the idea of co-housing by visiting a site in the Netherlands.

The popularity of this lifestyle has grown across Denmark and Scandinavia and seems to be growing in the UK too. The idea is that residents create and run their own communities.

According to a co-housing website there are 25 in the UK, with another 60 in the pipeline. 

The women tell me it helps stave off loneliness and isolation.

"I think it’s a no-brainer way for people to live.

"There’s so much fear and so many problems in the world - to live in a community for any age can only be rewarding.

"It’s not for everyone but the results are huge," Jude tells me.

But what the women have created took a lot of work and planning, particularly as they were UK pioneers of this.

The founding members advertised for "like-minded" women, found architects and received forward funding from a housing association to start work on New Ground.

The women then bought the flats, while eight are rented from a social landlord.

Getting to this point wasn’t easy, says Jude. Sites fell through and finding the land was a "hard slog".

"To build something like this takes a lot," she said.

All of the women are advocates of co-housing and want to encourage others to take part in it.

They even now teach others how to get started.

The ages and backgrounds of the women are varied. Some go to work, while others are retired.

They live independently in their homes but say it’s nice to know others are there if they want company.

"There’s always somebody there that you can go off with and do something social with," says Mags Beltran, 77.

"The onus is on really not being lonely, but it’s so fabulous because you can be lonely if you want to."

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